Mayo's meeting with Roscommon carries major significance for both sides

By Martin Carney, Mayo's foremost GAA columnist

There is little rest right now.

Game 5 sees Roscommon in town on tonight for a fixture that carries major significance for both teams.

Both need a win; Mayo to ensure survival in Division 1 and Roscommon to take them clear of the relegation zone.

I’d expect a confident Roscommon, a team who have at the moment a forward unit evolving into something special.

Daire Cregg, Diarmuid Murtagh and Enda Smith, among others, offer a substantial threat and one which Mayo will need to be at their best to suppress.

There is a lot riding on this fixture so I expect them to field their best available teams.

It should make for a great night’s football.

The inquest and finding answers to why Mayo were so out of sorts against Tyrone last weekend will have been be high on Kevin McStay’s in-box during this week.

Following their impressive outing in the defeat to Kerry seven days earlier we travelled in expectation to see the bar rise a little higher again.

Unfortunately, from the off that sense of purpose and competitiveness that was evident in Tralee was absent and supporters left Healy Park despondent.

Searching for answers is a never-ending exercise with all concerned but coming up with solutions that will benefit the team is altogether more difficult.

I drove there on Saturday morning and like many other supporters felt that the team announced at 5.30 p.m. Friday evening had a good chance of taking the spoils.

What started less than 24 four hours later was a fifteen that had four changes from the published team.

I understand the dynamics of the dressing room and the business of catching opponents off-guard by fielding players others than those listed; sometimes this works, others times not.

Equally, I understand the need to try new players and see how they respond in a highly charged atmospheres. Hindsight is a great thing but leaving out Aidan O‘ Shea and Ryan O’ Donoghue backfired.

The formers presence alone would have magnetised Tyrone attention while O’ Donoghue has by virtue of hard work earned the accolade of currently being Mayo’s most dangerous attacker.

For whatever reason, from an early stage I sensed an absence of cohesion with the team.

Turnover ball was commonplace (I counted at least five during the opening stages alone) and promising attacks floundered as a consequence.

Diarmuid O’ Connor’s early injury had a further unsettling effect. Late back this spring, a new soft tissue issue is the last thing he and the team need now.

Robbie Hennelly, Cillian O’ Connor, Michael Plunkett and Conor McStay were the last-minute draftees.

Robbie’s lack of game time (his last and only start for the county in 2023 was against Monaghan) was clear to all.

That instinctive and studied interaction with his outfield players on restarts was blunt.

Their movement and patterns were poor throughout in particular at a period after the Tyrone goal and didn’t do him any favours.

Cillian couldn’t impose himself and too often the delay in delivering ball to his sector further lessened his influence.

Though he notched a good point and linked well occasionally Conor McStay remains a work in progress at this level.

Michael Plunkett fitted into a half back role quite well but like the others lacked sharpness.

Of the half back line, Garrymore’s Enda Hession was the pick. In the opening period in particular he broke forward consistently but many of his outfield carries failed to reap the reward.

Stephen Coen, whose early point gave Mayo an eleventh minute lead, had a solid outing. That score hit with conviction from a difficult angle should have had a settling effect on the team.

However, the game as a whole struggled to break free from the repeated cat-and-mouse trends. Cillian’s penalty strike was superbly dispatched.

In those ten minutes after the goal, when Tyrone were reduced to14 men due to a black card offence, Mayo should have added more than the single Conor McStay point.

Not only that, but for the half hour after the penalty strike Mayo just added two points to their total.

What went wrong and why could Mayo not find a higher gear? Why did they appear so lifeless after the break?

No doubt, Tyrone played with greater intensity on and off the ball in the second half.

First to the breaking ball and consistently supporting one another they exploited a growing sloppiness in the Mayo performance.

To determine the real reason why they won it’s hard to look beyond the performances of substitute Darren McCurry and full forward Darragh Canavan.

Mayo hadn’t the personnel nor the defensive awareness to dampen their displays. From the off Canavan’s movement, timing and accurate finishing were a joy.

The latest in the Canavan line, and just like David Clifford and Con O’ Callaghan, he is becoming one of the reasons why people, young and old, want to watch the code.

His display on Sam Callinan in the Sigerson cup final was special but again last Saturday the goal and four points he notched were easy on the eye.